


When the Levee Breaks

by sgteam14283



Category: Red vs. Blue, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Battle Couple, Crossover, Deaf Clint Barton, F/M, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-07-23 12:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7463916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgteam14283/pseuds/sgteam14283
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's good to have friends when the deck is stacked against you. Especially when trying to survive Project Freelancer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

The compound was fairly small, two five-story buildings adjacent to a runway with barracks not far from the main complex and according to Intel was fairly well staffed. The server rooms were located on the top floors of each building with regular patrols to make sure no one tried to gain access to the information stored there. The complex was on the border of open fields so there was nowhere to hide or run should the complex be breached.

But agents Iowa and Nevada weren't worried about any of those details. It was a standard installation mission so all they had to be mindful of was the mission clock, making sure they made back before it expired. They'd never missed a rendezvous point before, but to the pair there was always room for improvement.

They had their ride drop them miles away from the complex and waited until it got dark, glad for the long nights that the planet they were on was known for; they used the increased darkness to their advantage to approach the buildings and silently take out the guards on the edge of the perimeter. After they had hidden the guards to delay their discovery, Iowa and Nevada split up-Iowa quickly climbing up to the nearest building's roof while Nevada skirted around towards the second building's entrance, hiding as the door opened and another guard stepped out into the night.  
  
Iowa stared through the scope and waited until he had a clear shot before taking the soldier out silently. As the man fell to the ground he activated his comm, “You’re clear Nevada.”  
  
“ _Copy. Make sure you keep an eye out for anyone, Iowa. I don’t want a repeat of last time._ ”  
  
“Hey, that wasn’t my fault. How was I supposed to know that Intel didn’t do their fucking job?”  
  
“ _Whatever you say. Going silent until spyware inserted._ ”  
  
“Copy. You've got ten minutes until the next sentry appears.” Iowa said as he shifted to where Nevada was and spotted the black armor with red streaks as she made her way towards the entrance of the compound, watching her six every step of the way. This wasn’t their first mission together, something that Iowa found interesting given that the Director liked to randomly pair everyone who wasn’t in the top ten for their missions. Maybe it was because they had the highest success rate outside of the top or even the fact that him and Nevada just clicked; whatever the reason was Iowa wasn’t complaining.  
  
It was nice to know that your partner wasn’t going to trip an alarm or get them both killed.  
  
Switching to infrared, Iowa tracked the sentries as they moved to make sure Nevada was alright. Sometimes the red-head liked to leave a trail of bodies in her wake and while Iowa didn’t normally mind, this time it was important that they weren’t discovered.  
  
But Nevada made it to the server room undetected and proceeded to install the spyware. Glancing away Iowa did a sweep, seeing that another sentry had decided to shake it up and make his rounds early-approaching the server room that Nevada was currently in. Heart rate spiking, Iowa was about to break comm silence to warn her when he saw Nevada climbing one of the server banks. " _What are you doing?_ " he wondered as he continued to watch, finger hovering over the trigger in case she needed the backup, and just as the sentry walked into the room she disappeared into the ceiling.  
  
Not knowing how she was going to handle it, he watched as the sentry soon left and Nevada dropped back into the room. Once her feet were on the ground Clint heard his comm crackle to life. “ _You wanna guide me out or should I try another São Paulo?_ ”  
  
Iowa felt his lips form a half-smile at the mention of the first mission that they had gone on together. “Your route’s clear. Head for the end of the hall and take the back stairs all the way. I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point.”  
  
Nevada raised an eyebrow when she heard Iowa’s instructions. “I think you're forgetting that I'm currently surrounded by people who wouldn't mind shooting at me.” she hissed while slowly making her way down the hall. It had been damn luck that she’d heard the sentry coming or otherwise she’d be busy fighting her way out, but with Iowa’s instructions she still might have to.  
  
“Not when their attention’s focused on something else.” Iowa said as he aimed for one of the many fuel tanks on the runway, waiting until there were a fair number of people gathered by it before pulling the trigger and engulfing the strip in a fireball. Feeling the heat from the explosion, Clint barely paused as he activated the magnetic locks on his suit and slinging the rifle onto his back, slid down the ladder-running for the rendezvous site.  
  
Nevada had just reached the stairwell when an explosion rumbled through the building and knew that was Iowa creating a distraction for her. “ _He’s just as crazy as I am._ ” she thought, shaking her head and quickly barring the door behind her. Fortunately the outpost wasn’t that high so she jumped between the railings to get down faster and burst outside, sprinting towards the open field. Mindful of the clock continuing to countdown on her HUD, Nevada pushed herself and reached the area just as a ship appeared from above.  
  
Hearing shouts from behind, she and Iowa turned around to see men running towards them and pop off a few shots. They went wild, pinging off the hull but the soldiers were approaching quickly and it was only a matter of time until a bullet actually hit their mark.  
  
“ _You think you could tell those guys to stop hitting my ship?_ ” Iowa heard Four-Seven-Niner shout through his comms and winced slightly, she was going to be pissed at him for days about this.  
  
“I’ll see what I can do.” Iowa pulled out his pistol and firing, hit the ones closest while slowly backing into the transport. He continued to fire as the loading door closed, sighing as the transport lifted off and headed away. Sitting down, but not lowering the safety bar, Iowa took off his helmet and ran a hand through his short brown hair while smiling at Nevada, Natasha Romanov.  
  
Nevada took off her helmet as well, but glared at the man sitting opposite from her. “Did you really have to blow something up?” she asked while signing at Iowa, Clint Barton. Although not surprised at the theatrics that she’d come to expect from the man, Natasha was sure that they could’ve left without them.  
  
Clint turned off his hearing aids, needing them because early in his UNSC career he had stopped a plasma grenade with his body leaving him with ten percent of his hearing left, and as they headed back to the _Mother of Invention_ he was glad that Natasha already knew sign language so they could keep some conversations private when the need arose.  
  
“Because you needed a quick way out and besides, who doesn’t like fireworks?” Clint replied with an wink.  
  
Natasha rolled her eyes at the statement but was glad that Clint liked to get creative, one thing that her former partners never seemed to be able to do.


	2. Chapter Two

It was night aboard the _Mother of Invention_ and the hum of the engines filled the empty hallways. But even though it was two in the morning there were still those who couldn’t sleep, either nightmares causing them to fight sleep or sleep simply eluding them. For Clint it was a combination of both and had decided to train until he was too exhausted to do much of anything else and had run into Nevada. Suggesting that they spar together, Clint knew that it would be infinitely more exciting than just training by themselves. Halfway through their first round Washington and North Dakota showed up and started watching from the observation deck, but neither cared; the top of the leaderboard always liked to watch the fights and gauge the skill of the rest of the Freelancers.  
  
Clint hit the ground with a grunt and looked up to see Nevada smiling as she folded her arms against her chest. “That was for the Carolina comment isn’t it?” Clint asked as he slowly got to his feet and readjusted his gloves while they walked to the middle of the room. He already knew that he'd be sore tomorrow but found that he didn't care, the pain just reminded him how far he pushed himself.  
  
“Yes.” Natasha replied as Clint stood and they reset. She moved first, lashing out at Clint with her fist followed by a kick and he blocked the first while dodging the second, ducking as her leg went sailing over his head. He countered with his own moves, forcing her to move backwards in order to keep up.  
  
Natasha flipped backwards to avoid Clint’s strike, landing and about to counter when suddenly the obstacle course appeared and they paused. Looking at Clint she saw that he was as surprised as she saw and they glanced towards the observation deck almost simultaneously reaching the same conclusion.  
  
The Director.  
  
Normally he didn’t show up to impromptu training sessions at night, but Clint wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip away. On the other side of the room he saw a compact bow and quiver full of arrows along with some knives.  
  
Barely glancing back he bolted for the bow and quiver, knowing that she was doing the same. But halfway there he realized that’s what the Director and Nevada expected him to do; everyone knew his first love was a bow and arrow. When he arrived with one slung on his shoulder there had been the normal jokes and snickers, but that all disappeared when they saw what he could do with two arrows. So he veered left and went for the set of knives, swiping them up as he sped past and attaching all but one onto his belt.  
  
Not slowing down he weaved through the course while keeping a look out for Natasha, wondering where she was. Then he caught a shimmer out of the corner of his eye and remembered too late that Nevada’s new armor enhancement was active camouflage.  Slamming to the ground, Clint let out a grunt and moved to counter but before he could she was gone and activated his own enhancement as he scrambled up. Leveraging himself up on top of the pylons so he could get a better vantage point Clint smirked to himself, “ _You can take the boy outta the circus…_ ”  
  
Spotting movement he used his old training to jump along the top of the pylons to where he'd seen Natasha; his HUD automatically targeting the best spot to exploit a weakness. Locking on, he aimed and threw the knife. It was a perfect throw and the knife buried itself between her shoulder plates, slicing through her black under-suit like it was cheap material.  
  
“ _Fucker._ ”  Natasha spat out while gripping her injured shoulder. Grimacing as she pulled the knife out Natasha clenched her jaw, determined not to let the others know how much pain she was in, and threw it back at him.  
  
He dodged it easily and Natasha pulled out the pistol she’d grabbed, aiming as Clint scrambled down and pulled the trigger but missed. Not letting him go easily, Natasha slowly followed while keeping the pistol up; she wasn’t going to let him catch her off guard again. Spotting the purple and black armor she pulled the trigger but the shots went wide and the squibs exploded on the pylon, the purple gel crystallizing as soon as it made contact.  
  
Clint sped through the course even though he knew that Natasha would catch him eventually; what she lacked in accuracy she made up for in stealth and speed. He also knew that he should go for her injured shoulder, it would be a cheap move but they were competing and she wouldn’t hold back on him just because they were partners. Spotting the black and red armor Clint launched himself at Nevada, tackling her to the ground and slamming his back into a pylon. Grimacing he reached for Nevada's foot and gave it a yank, sending her to the floor as he scrambled up. Hoping for a few seconds reprieve, he was disappointed when Nevada instantly jumped back up and blocked with his arm in time to stop Nevada's fist from slamming into his helmet. They continued like that, trading and dodging blows, for who knows how long because when Clint was fighting all that mattered was the person in front of him and what he was doing.

Then just as Clint was about to land a punch that would hopefully send Nevada to the floor, shots rang out and he felt bullets slam into his side. Stumbling, Clint lost his momentum and started to fall as the gel crystallized, freezing him mid-fall. More shots rang out and Clint grunted as the bullets slammed into his back and front, knowing that he’d be feeling all of this tomorrow.  
  
“You should’ve gone for the arrows, Iowa.” Natasha said while signing then gave Clint’s helmet a gentle, if a bit forceful, slap as she walked away. She'd caught a lucky break, he always forgot to check his peripherals and exploited it.  
  
“You’re just jealous I’m such a good shot.” Clint managed to get out as F.I.L.L.I.S. announced that the training simulation was over and Agent Nevada had won.  
  
“And yet I still beat you.”  
  
As the pylons lowered and Nevada walked off to take care of her shoulder, Clint wondered how long he’d stay like this until another Freelancer took pity on him and helped him break the simulation gel. Realizing his arms were pretty much free, Clint wriggled his helmet off and let it fall to the floor while sighing at his predicament; normally he mopped the floor with whomever he was sparring with, but Nevada pushed him in the best way possible.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The leaderboard rankings change and Natasha becomes suspicious about Freelancer's intentions.

Nevada was on her way to the cafeteria when suddenly there were shouts behind her and turned around to see Iowa’s head above everyone else and moving towards her quickly.

“Heads up!” Clint shouted as people jerked out of the way and he skated past them. Seeing bright red hair he grinned at Nevada as he went past her and since the hallway ahead was empty decided to grind on the handrail for a few seconds before hopping back down on the smooth floor, grinning knowing that Nevada would most likely be shooting him a look.

Natasha rolled her eyes at the blatant show off and decided that if the Counselor or anyone else asked she had no idea what had gotten into her partner. Walking into the cafeteria, she saw that Iowa was already sitting down with his tray and idly rolling the skateboard back and forth with his foot. Knowing that he had grabbed enough for her, she saw down across from him and when she saw the pizza everything clicked. “You stole Wash’s skateboard for pizza.” she said in a dry tone, noting that she wasn’t at all surprised with Iowa’s antics. 

“I’ll just teach him how to knife fight with both hands. I don’t get why the others give him so much shit, he’s a surprisingly quick learner.” Clint said after swallowing his mouthful of pizza. He missed New York style pizza in the worst way, hell he missed New York period, but wouldn’t give up this opportunity to really push his skills. He’d also like to try his targeting enhancement while using his bow in the field, there was only so much the range could do to remotely make it a challenge.

“He’d have to be in order to be in the top ten. And they do it because he’s good at playing like he’s not.” Natasha replied, eyes flicking to where the other freelancers sat. The area was empty now since they were on a mission but normally everyone liked to chill there when they had the down time. North and South always got a card game going and generally roped Washington, Wyoming, Florida, and Maine into playing before getting slightly out of hand and settling the arguments in the simulation room.

“Speaking of, you see the latest rankings?”

“Not yet. Why?”

“We actually made top ten.”

“Funny.” While they were good, Natasha held no illusions about her abilities and those of Iowa’s; the others were better and everyone wanted to get into the top ten. You actually got to learn about your missions before getting dropped in the middle of fucking nowhere.

“No seriously we did. Apparently the last mission they went on shit went down and the Director changed the rankings, it must of been a spectacular fuck up because even Connecticut is higher than North and South.”

Natasha rose an eyebrow at the last sentence and leaned over to give Iowa a punch on the arm, “You wanna say that around Connie?”

Clint realized what he had said and winced a little, remembering how Connie had almost sliced his arm during one of their first sparring sessions; the woman might be short but was extremely talented with knives.

“Yeah that’s what I thought.” Natasha leaned back and was silent for a second, thinking about what such a shift in the rankings might mean in the long run. Idly drumming her fingers on the table she asked, “Something about all of this doesn’t feel right.”

“How so?”

“The codenames, the ranking system, all of our enhancements, never finding out the mission until we’re actually on the ground. It all seems overly militaristic.”

“Well Nevada, this is the military so those would be apart of that. You know that.”

Natasha shook her head. “We’re outside the UNSC Iowa. The MOI might be a military ship, but there are more labs than bunks and other than us there’s no other military personnel onboard. Plus between my history with the Red Room Division, your hearing loss, and York’s eye we shouldn’t even be wearing armor but we still are.” She paused, not sure if she should continue but then she looked at Iowa and realized that he’d stopped idly rolling the skateboard and looked like he was actually paying attention. “Plus all the smash and grabs they send us on-I just feel like there’s something else going on here.”

Clint was silent while Nevada talked, realizing that what she was saying made sense but at the same time felt like she was playing with fire and that if they mentioned something to the wrong person it would blow up in their faces. “Have you told anyone else?”

“Only you.”

“Keep it that way for now. When we figure this all out we can loop the others in.”

Natasha nodded and sat back in her chair. Just then North, South, Connie, and York came into the cafeteria and roped Iowa into a poker game. She watched as they dealt the cards and wondered if the leaderboard change was a good thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fudged a little on the MOI's interior since we only know about a few sections and (in my mind) it makes a little more sense that there would be more labs than normal since the Director was trying to be all mad scientist with the Freelancers. Hope you guys enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> Got the idea what if Clint and Natasha had been in Project Freelancer (esp with York and Wash in the mix) and decided to run with it. Don't own anything your recognize, and enjoy!


End file.
